1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system bar codes, and more particularly to a secure information handling system matrix bar code.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems have over time included more powerful processing components that cooperate to process and store information. This trend has allowed manufacturers to build information handling systems from smaller and more powerful components into smaller and more compact housings. Today, mobile telephones perform many functions historically performed by desktop and laptop information handling systems, such as providing web browsing and e-mail functions. A typical “smartphone” is essentially a small tablet information handling system in a housing sized to hold as a handset during a telephone call. One side of the tablet housing exposes a touchscreen display that presents information and accepts inputs made with the aid of graphical user interfaces. The housing typically has an integrated camera to allow an end user to take pictures and store the pictures in memory integrated in the housing, such as flash memory of a solid state drive (SSD). To perform web browsing or e-mail functions, the end user activates an appropriate application through the touchscreen and interacts with the application through the touchscreen. Although the small size of smartphone information handling systems provides convenient and easy-to-use consumption of information for end users, the small size of the touchscreen can make typed inputs by an end user slow and difficult. For example, in order to input a web address at a web browser, an end user typically manipulates a keyboard at a touchscreen, which takes time, concentration and usually involves a number of minor mistakes.
One shortcut for inputting a web address to a smartphone information handling system is provided by the use of Quick Response (QR) codes. A QR code is a type of matrix barcode, also known as a two-dimensional code, that stores information with black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. A QR code is detected as a two-dimensional image by a camera that is then digitally analyzed to decode information stored by the black modules. Typically, a processor locates three distinctive fiducial squares at the corners of the image and a smaller square near the fourth corner to normalize the image for size, orientation and angle of viewing so that modules can be converted to binary numbers and validity checked with an error-correcting code. If the information stored by a QR code provides a web address, then a smartphone end user can open a browser to the web address embedded in the QR code by taking a picture of the QR code with a camera of the smartphone and then analyzing the picture with an application running on a processor of the smartphone. QR code reader applications are typically available at no charge for download and use on most smartphones.
Advertisers have taken advantage of QR codes to enrich advertising content that an end user finds of interest. For example, an advertisement includes a QR code that embeds a web address with additional advertisement content. If an end user finds the advertisement of interest, the end user takes a picture of the QR code with a smartphone and allows the smartphone browser to automatically present information from the web address, which is decoded by a QR code reader application running on the smartphone. In addition to the web address, the QR code can include identification information that indicates where the QR code was captured by an end user. For example, a URL encoded in the QR code includes information associated with a location.
One disadvantage of ready access to QR code information is that virtually anyone with a smartphone can take an image of and decode virtually any QR code. In some instances, a QR code may include product related information or a confidential nature that is only intended for use by a particular end user, such as a purchaser of a product. For example, a storage device sold at a store might include a QR code with information that aids an end user in setting up the storage device; if an individual with malicious intent takes an image of the QR code before purchase of the storage device by an end user, then information gleamed from the storage device might further malicious intentions of the individual, such as attempts to hack the storage device. Similar security concerns exists where other types of confidential information is stored in and then communicated by a QR code.
Another difficulty with embedding information in a QR code is that printing individual QR codes for specific information can be an expensive and complex process. For example, printing a series of QR codes with each having a different serial string of information typically uses specialized printing and management software to monitor the use of each QR code. Once the QR codes are printed, care is required to ensure that each QR code ends up on a desired product or at a desired location. If the information embedded in a QR code is encrypted, monitoring the information provided by each QR code has increased difficulty in that an encrypted QR code is more difficult to test once it is attached to a product since the tester must have access to the key for decrypting the QR code.